Around the Yard

Things to do this week:

* Thin camellias. As soon as you can distinguish between leaf buds and flower buds, it’s time to disbud camellias. By removing all but one bud from each terminal cluster, you will get fewer flowers overall, but each one will be much bigger, may last longer and may have fewer problems with disease. Don’t get the idea that you must do this--lots of smaller flowers are OK--but camellia fanciers disbud every fall, especially if they plan to show the flowers or simply display them indoors, floating in a bowl.

* Look for signs of autumn. The weather is cooling off so tomatoes that stopped setting fruit when the temperatures were hotter may start again. Don’t pull them out too soon. Lots of gardeners are still getting great, hamburger-smother- ing slices off their plants because the biggest and best tomato plants often don’t produce much until early fall.

Other signs that autumn is on the way: the deep-pink floss silk trees (Chorisia speciosa) that are blooming around town, the bulbs arriving at nurseries and the return of drier, offshore winds.